First images from the Showtime series

[Siggdalos]

https://ew.com/tv/let-the-right-one-in- ... -showtime/

... Now, Showtime is breathing fresh life into the novel with a New York-set TV show which will premiere this fall.

"The [original] film is about a relationship between an isolated bullied boy and an isolated lonely girl, who we learn is a vampire," says showrunner Andrew Hinderaker. "What I found so compelling about that film is there's a much smaller relationship between the vampire and [her] adult caretaker. I really used the film as inspiration for a story that really focuses on a 12-year-old girl who has been a vampire for 10 years. She has been taken care of by her father, who keeps her alive, who keeps them ahead of the law, and who has kept hope alive for both of them that one day they will find a cure and this won't be her life always."

Madison Taylor Baez plays the young vampire, Eleanor Kane, while The Hateful Eight actor Demián Bichir portrays her father, Mark.

"This is the story of a father and his daughter and all the obstacles they have to conquer and overcome in order to keep themselves alive," says Bichir. "Mark's daughter has been infected, so to speak, with a very, very strange and terrible virus, disease, however you want to call it. I'm saying [it like] this because, to me, this story goes beyond any vampire story. To me, this is about many other things that we're actually experiencing. It's about how difficult it is in any society for anyone to be different and to try to fit in."

The show's first episode finds Mark and Eleanor moving into a New York apartment. Their immediate neighbors are a cop named Naomi Cole (Anika Noni Rose) and her son Isaiah (Ian Foreman), who inadvertently risks life and limb (not to mention his neck!) by befriending Eleanor.

"It was important to me to aspire to capture the spirit of the film and for the show to be a love letter to it," says Hinderaker. "In the film, there is that relationship between the two children that is so pivotal in terms of what makes it iconic, what makes it so beautiful. So, this father and daughter move next door to another 12-year-old child, Isaiah, a boy who is isolated and bullied. Isaiah and Madison, our vampire, form a truly powerful and precarious friendship that's made all the more precarious because Isaiah's mother is a homicide detective."

The show's filming took place in New York and involved both freezing weather and many night shoots.

"It's a difficult story, it's a dark story, we were shooting mostly in the winter, that makes the whole thing very very difficult," says the Mexico-born Bichir, who is also a producer on the show. "But you know, when you're an actor in Mexico everything else is like a walk in the park. It's like driving. If you drive in Mexico City, oh, you're ready for any city on the planet!"

The cast of Let the Right One In also includes Grace Gummer, Kevin Carroll, Jacob Buster, Nick Stahl, and Željko Ivanek. The show is produced by Tomorrow Studios.

[CyberGhostface]

I’ve said this before but this makes Reeves’ film look transgressive in comparison.

Eli is a girl. Not a castrated boy. (To be fair this was never going to happen and I didn’t expect it from to.) Plus she’s only been a vampire for a very short amount of time.

Hakan is now her biological father. Not a pedophile enlisted to help her or a former childhood friend groomed to be her servant.

It’s, no pun intended, looking to be very toothless.

[danielmann861]

I’ve said this before but this makes Reeves’ film look transgressive in comparison.

Eli is a girl. Not a castrated boy. (To be fair this was never going to happen and I didn’t expect it from to.) Plus she’s only been a vampire for a very short amount of time.

Hakan is now her biological father. Not a pedophile enlisted to help her or a former childhood friend groomed to be her servant.

It’s, no pun intended, looking to be very toothless.

Yeah...took the words out of my mouth. Looks like a big fat "MEH" to me.

I'll probably watch it just out of curiosity...that and I'm curious to see Nick Stahl again. But yeah, looks pretty castrated of all meat to me. Gone is the pedophile angle. I guess I never expected that to be explored. Hell, it wasn't even really explored in Alfredson's film. It was maybe hinted at slightly with the scene of Eli touching a quivering Hakan but even then, it was only a mere suggestive shot. I didn't expect any of these TV series to go there with it. Although I kind of wish someone would have the balls to go there with it just because I always found that to be an interesting power dynamic in the novel.

But I am surprised they aren't even bothering with the "groomed child/servant" angle. I mean even Reeves went that route.

I don't know...to be fair, maybe the new father-daughter angle will bring something of interest, but I doubt it. I expect this to be very castrated indeed.

Maybe the supposed Korean version will have some balls to explore uncharted territory?

[JToede]

Wow, I wasn't expecting much and I am still disappointed.

[Jameron]

Maybe the supposed Korean version will have some balls to explore uncharted territory?

I'm all in favour of a Korean version although I doubt it'll tackle the paedophile story, or Eli's emasculation. From what I've watched, Korean TV doesn't push the boundaries when kids are on screen or in the audience (even their late-teen early-twenty-something Rom-Coms have the most chaste on screen kisses I've seen outside of Indian films (possible exaggeration)) ... Japan though...

.

[Siggdalos]

I don't know...to be fair, maybe the new father-daughter angle will bring something of interest, but I doubt it.

I think that the idea of a parent who has to care for a child who's turned into a monster is, on its own, a very compelling concept for a story, and making the helper-vampire dynamic the focus is at least a novel take on the source material.

If it results in a good take is another question. It does pretty much entirely change the premise since Eleanor, unlike Eli, isn't someone who's been alone without family and friends for centuries. She already has someone who--I'm assuming--loves and accompanies her without any ulterior motives. The obvious risk is that this removes a lot of the power from the love story. But we'll see.

I agree that it would be interesting to see an adaptation that fully embraces all of the darkness and complicated aspects of the novel, but realistically I don't expect that to ever happen. As I've written before, I'm willing to give this show a fair chance, as long as there's a way to watch it in Sweden.